How about a server that's not based on a computer. Like it could be a mobile phone. Could you do that Kveroneau?

Ideakveroneau(Game Creator)April 27, 2016, 5:42 p.m.

An in-game host can technically be any Internet connected device. Although in the real world, mobile phones are behind NAT firewalls normally and not connected directly to the Internet using a public IP address. So connecting to such a device would be different, as there'd need to be either some sort of jump box or a backdoor program to send remote commands to.

Besides there being a network side differentiator, how else should say a mobile device differ from other hosts? Mobile phones would change their NAT'd IP more, would contain different data structures like contact lists, and other phone related data.

Could you give an example mission objective where the target would be a mobile phone?

IdeaPixelHDApril 27, 2016, 5:57 p.m.

One thing is that this mission objective is like figuring out what the passcode is, but I really don't know how hacking a phone works, but I think one way to hack into a phone is through bluetooth, but you have to be within 10 meters of the phone or you lose connection. There could be some kind of in-game software that acts like a sFTP or SSH client, and to connect, we would use the user name:root and the password: alpine. And when you access it, there would be files for apps on the phone ex. Facebook, Youtube, etc. And the mission objective would be something like, browse their web browser history for a website your client wants you to hack it for the IP. Or you could access all the text messages that the phone sent to certain phone #s.

Ideakveroneau(Game Creator)April 27, 2016, 6:24 p.m.

SSH and SFTP are partly simulated already using rlogin/rcp. Bit a trivia, rcp is is an actual UNIX command that stands for remote copy. The SFTP version is called scp, the in-game rcp command uses the same parameters as the UNIX scp command.

The new code which will use the host templates will introduce a connect command, which will act like the in-game version of SSH, and allow you to specify a username and password for the connection. The rcp command will also be updated to support username and passwords for file copying. The rlogin will remain, which will attempt to always log you in remotely using your current username, as the real-life rlogin command did. Rlogin is no longer used on UNIX any longer, but I thought it would be suitable to use for the game, as it's easy to use and understand.

I doubt I could effectively implement a simulated Bluetooth, as you mention it is a local proximity wireless protocol, which isn't well suited for this type of game. However logging into and viewing data should be possible. As viewing in-game mailboxes will be possible, I'm sure implementing text messages and such shouldn't be difficult.

However, if a hacker did want to read text messages, it might be more effective to hack into a carrier server and read or intercept the messages from there. In the real world, cell phone companies do store a record of all text messages sent through their system.

As for specific app data, such as Facebook, it would be easier to just hack into that user's account directly on the website. :). These days, all the information stored on our mobile phones are also synced into the cloud. Take the recent iCloud hack, where hacker's were able to grab user contact data, and photos they took, among other data.